Last night was an eventful night. At about 7:15pm after Seth did laps around the house in his walker for about an hour, he came into the living room. Derrick and I were both sprawled out on the couch, as were the dogs, on the floor next to us, and Seth just looked at us and started to whine. It was the, I’m done and need to rest kind of whine. I lifted him from the walker, grabbed his pacifier and slid it into his sobbing mouth and laid him on the couch next to me. It didn’t even take 5 minutes for him to fall asleep! So I continued to let him sleep next to me while tried to finish watching the movie. And then…Derrick decided to call his cousin, Dan, who lives in Michigan to let him know that we would be making out way up to that neck of the woods, while we visit family and friends in the North Country next weekend. Well, Derrick didn’t get a hold of his cousin, but rather his aunt. She starts asking twenty questions, like most aunts do, and he started to talk loud and then a little bit louder as if there was something going on in the background on the other end of the phone. Needless, to say our little sleeping prince woke up. His bedtime is usually about 8pm so he did fall asleep a little bit early the first time. However, before he went to bed the second time, the non-routine went something like this:
Rock Seth in the rocking chair and he starts to dose off. Gently try to carry him to his crib upstairs. He wakes up as soon as his head hits the pillow. He starts to cry as soon as I try to walk out of his room. I decide to try to put him in my bed and hold him until he falls asleep. He starts to dose off and then his daddy decides to come to bed. Seth then thinks it’s time to play. He wants to crawl all over the bed. I try to fight with him to get him to lay still. I get frustrated with trying to hold him still and decided to try putting him in his crib. I turn on his Rainforest Waterfall Peek-a-Boo Soother, cover him with his blanket, put his bear security blanket next to his face, and slowly try to tip-toe out of his room. As soon as I get back in bed he begins crying, but I decide I’m going to let him cry it out. His crying soon turns to screaming-sobs. I can only handle so much and find my way back into his room after only 5 minutes of listening to the screaming-sobs. I walk into his room and he is standing up, hanging on to the side of the crib with tears and snot streaming down his face, his eyes and cheeks are red and throbbing. I decided to change him into a clean diaper, gave him some children’s Tylenol, and got him a bottle. I put him in his crib with the bottle and made my way back to bed. I knew his bottle was gone, because I heard a cry. So once again, I made my way back into his room and gave him his pacifier. As soon as the pacifier reached his mouth, he was out.
Ahhh, relief, now I can finally go to sleep. However….there’s always a however, at about 10:45pm Seth is awake again. This time it’s daddy to the rescue. Derrick goes into Seth’s room and tries to soothe him. Seth isn’t taking the bait. So, once again I get out of bed, cradle him in my arms and reassure him that everything is okay. I bring him in bed with me, where he immediately falls asleep. I can tell he’s completely asleep because his pacifier has fallen out of his mouth and he isn’t fighting to find it. I slide out of bed with him in my arms and made my way to his room. I softly dropped him in his bed, covered him with his blanket and put his bear security blanket next to his face. And finally, after a rat race of trying to get Seth to fall asleep, we were all out for the night.
When I woke up this morning it was the same usual weekly routine. We get up, get our showers, get dressed and head downstairs. Derrick leaves about an hour before I do, so I finish getting ready while he is packing his lunch and eating breakfast. I can hear him let the dogs out of their cages and it sounds like a herd of elephants as the dogs dance around in the room below. He feeds Dixie first and then lets her outside while he feeds Belle. After Belle finishes eating he lets her out, but adheres to hooking her to her chain, so she won’t go under the fence. He rode his motorcycle this morning as I could hear him start it up in the garage below the bathroom. The garage door shuts and then I hear him speed off in a racy, roar on his motorcycle. As I am rushing to finish getting ready, I can hear that Seth is awake in his room. I finish getting ready, go into Seth’s room with a huge smile on my face, I get him changed and in his outfit for the day. I go downstairs and place Seth in his highchair for his morning cereal and bottle. My mother in-law is already at the house and I’m sure, noticing that I’m running late goes to the cupboard to prepare breakfast for Seth. (By the way, I’m running late because I have a bad habit of going back to sleep/resting after I get out of the shower. And then it doesn’t allow me enough time to do everything I should do in the morning, such as eating breakfast at home instead of at work.) She begins feeding him and mentions to Seth that the blinds aren’t open yet, so he can’t see the sun shining. I interrupt packing my lunch, which consists of throwing anything I can find or might want to eat for lunch into my lunch pal, to open the window blinds so my cheerful son can see outside while he is eating. Much to my surprise I see Seth’s kiddy pool pulled across the patio and deflated. DAMN DOGS!!!
We have been having some issues with the dogs lately. Dixie has a bad habit of getting a hold of all of Seth’s toys or pacifiers and chewing on them. Not sure if its jealousy, being attention deprived, or just the fact that she’s a Lab and that’s what Labs do, they get into trouble. And then there’s Belle, she has been acting as if she’s a new puppy. She doesn’t like to sleep in her cage at night. She whines and paws at her cage until we bring her upstairs. She has also been chewing on everything! We just got a brand new wooden picnic table for our patio and she has already managed to chew on the seats. She can turn on the water spicket outside, so from month to month you never know what the water bill is going to be like. You can’t leave her off her chain, because she is an escape artist and quicker than you know what, she’ll find or dig another hole to get under fence. She can’t use the other holes she’s dug to get under the fence because we’ve plugged them when rocks, brush, tree branches, and anything else we can find to cram in the holes. Anyway, I’m not sure what else to do with these dogs. I can’t get rid of them, because well, they are part of the family and I love them!
Even though your kids will consistently do the exact opposite of what you’re telling them to do, you have to keep loving them just as much. –Bill Cosby
